Former President Barack Obama said he might take a shot at inspiring confidence in coronavirus vaccines by getting one on television.
Obama said that he would trust any vaccine that Dr. Anthony Fauci said was safe and effective. He noted that he trusts Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“People like Anthony Fauci, who I know and I’ve worked with, I trust completely,” Obama said in an interview with SiriusXM host Joe Madison set to air on Thursday. “So, if Anthony Fauci tells me this vaccine is safe and can vaccinate, you know, immunize you from getting COVID, absolutely, I’m going to take it.”
Obama also touched on the legacy of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, where several black men in Alabama died after being deprived of penicillin as part of a now-reviled study about the effects of syphilis.
“And I understand, you know, historically, everything dating back all the way to the Tuskegee experiments and so forth, why the African American community would have some skepticism,” Obama said of the vaccine. “But the fact of the matter is, is that vaccines are why we don’t have polio anymore, the reason why we don’t have a whole bunch of kids dying from measles and smallpox and diseases that used to decimate entire populations and communities.”
The former president said it is important for people to follow the guidelines put forward by medical experts and said that people in the highest risk categories who are offered the vaccine first should accept it. He also teased a possible television appearance.
“And I promise you that when it’s been made for people who are less at risk, I will be taking it, and I may end up taking it on TV or having it filmed just so people know that I trust this science,” he said. “What I don’t trust is getting COVID.”
A majority of those in the United States said they will get a coronavirus vaccine, according to polling from Gallup. A recent survey found that 58% of adults said they would agree to be vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to 42% who didn’t. That number is down from a high in July, when 68% of those surveyed said the same.
